Flyin by the seat o my pants.

"Yeah, that'd work."
"I'm down."
"It's a busy weekend for us, but yes, we'll be there."

And so it came to pass that Sunday Dec 17 was going to be our Bake Off day. We were going to bake a few things, and cook a few others. As per a tradition that we started 4 years ago.

We were going to meet at 2 (I'd have things started by then), bake/cook/chop/dice/slice for a few hours, then go to the Star Wars movie at 7:30. (I'd bought tickets three weeks ago.)

One thing led to another, like they do, and by 4 pm, only Drew and Dani had shown up, and I'd spontaneously invited Danica's dad, mom and sisters, as well as Amy's dad to dinner. Somehow in those two hours, 4 pans of lasagna, 78 Eis Gipfel (mini cinnamon buns) 2 pots of ham n cauliflower soup, 2 dozen banana muffins, a roasted ham and a double batch of scalloped potatoes got prepared. By the time 6 pm rolled around, the house was full of happy people, eating food. And the kitchen looked like a bomb had gone off.

I WISH I HAD TAKEN PICS.

All I got was this:

Max made the icing.
Drew and him frosted everything.

I had been hoping to get my annual Christmas card pic this afternoon; it's been over a year and I don't have one single pic with all 5 of them in it.

Sigh.

We left the house shortly after 7, watched the movie, ( consensus was unfavorable), then I came back home and washed dishes til 1 am.


My plan had been to take Monday afternoon off. (I have one half flex day left to use in 2017. And Monday was going to be it.) I had a hair appointment, I needed to pick up some orders, fill my truck with gas, and I was going to prepare for Book Club. I was hosting, and we were going to meet earlier than usual to have dinner. I needed to finish reading the book, work on my book list (see earlier post) AND I DIDN'T WANT TO FEEL RUSHED.

It didn't happen.
(Well, I did sneak out to get a trim - she took offfff 7 inches.)
But I was still at the office, sitting at my desk at 5:30 pm. I hadn't finished the book, or my list, or prepared anything for our dinner. Which was at 6:30.

It totally didn't matter.
Somehow we all sat at a set table, there was plenty of food, our meeting was an absolute blast and I am so grateful for all the people in my life who are OK with me randomly putting things together then running out of time to do them with excellence.

Martha Steward would be disappointed.
These last two day's events had the potential to be wonderful pinterest dinners, with decorations and themes and specialty foods and It. Just. Didn't. Happen.

Oh well.


Three things I'm thankful for:

1. I am SO VERY grateful for people who bring their A Game to dinners. You know the ones - they come excited to be there. Happy to talk to any/everyone. They bring ideas and laughter and enthusiasm and it's all infectious. THANK YOU.

2. We played Book Club Jeopardy tonight. Hahaha. Sheri made it up, based on the books we'd been reading since 2009. (! Whoa. Time flies.) So grateful for this once-a-month Monday night gathering of friends who love to read. Thankful for writers who write books. And readers who love to talk about them.

3. I am thankful that my mom is OK about me opening up her home to my people. Grateful that she's ok with me making her quiet life get a little noisy and messy at times.

4. Thankful for friends who agree with me that spending Saturday afternoon in a bookstore looking for "Books that have beautiful covers" is The Best Way to Waste an Hour, EVER.

Shalom,
xo

Lanterns, Chinese Style

Sandra and I went to this thing tonight.

Chinese Lantern Festival...

At the PNE grounds.

(If it's not raining, I will be outside.)

It was spread out over All The Acres, so lots of room to wander.

Lots of room for thousands of people to ooooh and ahhhhh.

There were, maybe, a couple hundred of us there.

Just like Glow, (from the other night), I again felt like this was a great event to attend with grandchildren or a kissy date.

Never-the-less, it was a beautiful night to be out, walkin around. And the lanterns really were pretty spectacular.

Three things I'm thankful for:

1. Friday night lights. Haha. See what I did there?

2. Hot showers. Clean hair. Soft pajamas. Quiet basement.

3. Book club. We're meeting on Monday night to talk about The Handmaid's Tale. And then we're going to pick books to read in 2018... based on a number of category options, like:

• Prize winning titles (Pulitzer, Booker, Nobel, PEN/Faulkner)
• A book in a genre you usually avoid
• Newbury Medal Winner (Children's Literature)
• A book set somewhere you've never been but would like to visit
• A book in translation
• A book chosen by the cover
• A book you should have read in high school
• A book you don't want to admit you're dying to read
• A book that intimidates you
• A book that's been banned
• A book published before you were born

We'll each suggest titles for each category then decide which category to read in January and vote on which book based on all the suggestions brought forward. 

I know, right?

SO FUN. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was a contortionist performing on the stage:

Unbelievable.
Just crazy.

Shalom,
xo

Wrong Assumption

Some communities go all out decorating for the holidays.

And some don't.

I thought that New West would. (They go kinda crazy with fresh flower hanging baskets in the spring; which led me to believe that, of course, there would be light displays for Christmas.)

Turns out, I guessed wrong.

This was it:

One Christmas tree all lit up in front of an Irish pub.




However, all was not lost.

It was a brisk, fresh, lovely evening for a walk along the riverfront.

Three things I'm thankful for:

1. Friends who text at 7:30 pm saying, "I've had a nap. Wanna do something?"

2. All the important things got checked off my list at work today. < This rarely happens anymore.

3. You know how you hear a story, a message, a sermon, a devotional, or something, and it just sticks with you? That happened to me at the start of this Christmas season.

Focus always has it's Christmas Banquet on the last Thursday of November. So for me, that's the start of Christmas parties. It's also the last of them, because it's the only one I go to. Anyway, the speaker that evening started his talk by sharing a family tradition that they've had for years and years.

In the fall, they'd pick a family in their neighbourhood who was struggling financially, or having some issues, or dealing with hard things and decide to bless them at Christmas. For the next few months, they'd pick up/save/buy things for the family keeping it all in brown paper bags, in a corner of their garage. The closer to Christmas, the more excited the family got, adding last minute food items, and special gifts.

On Christmas Eve, the whole family would carry plainly wrapped parcels and bags, very quietly, and leave it all by their front door, then everyone would sneak back to the car, leaving one kid behind to ring the doorbell and run back to the vehicle. Everyone would be giddy, overjoyed, happy and talkative ...

As he was reminiscing, I remembered my dad. He loved doing this too. Most times he'd do something on his own, and we may or may not have heard about it afterwards, but one Christmas, when we were all in our teens, he thought we should bless our young pastor and his family with a load of beef. We'd just butchered a cow (we had a farm with cattle. They were grass and grain fed. Lived happy, full lives, roaming around on our 25 acres, the neighbour's 40 acres, and the playing field at Tynehead Park) and had hundreds of pounds of meat in plainly wrapped brown paper in our deep freeze.

He was the giddy one. We packed up steaks, and roasts and hamburger meat and stewing beef in some boxes, and probably some baking, and knowing my dad, he woulda tucked in a few one hundred dollar bills as well, and snuck up to their door, rang the door bell then took off, screeching our tires as we zipped away from their house. His joy of giving was infectious. He was so happy to leave those boxes of frozen meat on their door step. We must've talked about it for months, wondering if they ever figured out it was us.

Listening to the speaker share his memories with so much happiness in his voice, and remembering how thrilled my dad was to give gifts, it was easy for me to imagine just how excited God must've been, that first Christmas, to surprise us with a precious gift in a plain wrapping. He had been planning on sending His son to save us for a long time. Since the beginning of time, actually. And when He did it, He was giddy with joy. His son was delivered in Bethlehem, and to let everyone know He let the Angels 'ring the doorbell' (so to speak) with their announcement of "GUESS WHAT? A SAVIOUR HAS BEEN BORN!"  before they disappeared around the corner, screeching their tires.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I know that there's a strong argument against all the gifts we buy each other at Christmas. Good reasons to scale back or even eliminate the whole commercial aspect of the holiday. But I think that would be sad.

It's not a bad thing, to express love and experience happiness when you present someone with a gift. It doesn't have to be bought. Or even wrapped cheerfully. But the act of giving with joy and receiving with appreciation is Holy.

And I think God smiles like crazy when He sees us following His lead on this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So the third thing I'm thankful for is stories. Especially ones that stick with you a long time.


Merry Christmas, friends.
xo

Glow

It's a thing.


In a greenhouse, in Langley.

Terry and I went tonight.
And hung out with a couple hundred young couples all doing kissing selfies under the lights.

It was super busy when we arrived (at 8:30). But we almost had the place to ourselves by 9:30.

These hanging lights (icicles) were very cool.

Three things I'm thankful for:

1. Friends with cameras who turn nights like this into a 'let's experiment with our equipment' opportunity.

2. I am thankful for the creative team I work with. So much talent. Constantly in a state of awe.

(Thankful for friends who like posing with Disney Princesses)

3. Thankful for the run of 10 days with no rain. Seriously the best way to get through December is to spend time outside in the not-rain.

I'm thankful that Dec 21st is only a few sleeps away. THEN THE DAYS GET LONGER AGAIN.

I'm thankful for blow dryers. I can't imagine waiting 6 hours for one's hair to dry. WHAT DID THEY DO IN THE OLDEN DAYS?



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

Gnite,
xo

1.2.3.

Three things I'm thankful for:

1. Movies/Shows/Books that make you think and feel:

2. Friends who have cancer BUT JUST FOUND OUT THEY QUALIFY FOR A BRAND-NEW DRUG THAT HAS A 75 - 80% SUCCESS RATE. So grateful for scientists and doctors who are smart and caring and keep trying and keep learning and keep pressing on.

3. Thankful for the friends who listen to me whine after a discouraging day.

Shalom, friends,
xo

My Most Recent Trip

I was at Crescent Beach this afternoon, just walking around, minding my own business, when this incredible sunset just broke out:

It was so vast and vibrant.
Everyone on the beach just stopped and stared.

Quite incredible really.

I felt so lucky to be right under it. Like I was living in a pink and blue cotton candy world.

I walked towards the dock at the north end of the beach, taking pics as I went.

The ocean was pink in some spots. Magenta in others.


Felt like I was on another planet that had different colours for things; I mean, we're used to water being a dark blue 'round these parts. But this was a glowing rosy color.

And the birds?

They came in from everywhere to hang out with each other and talk about the soft pink water:

I saw this guy, a crane, standing very still. His reflection was perfect. But his head is lost in the shadow of the sand dune.

I thought I'd sneak up behind this photographer, who was no doubt getting a perfect shot, and get a pic of him from behind, taking a shot of the bird. It was going to be brilliant. My best pic ever. A National Geographic treasure.

Using my best stealth moves, and being quiet as a mouse, I made my way down to the beach. I was just coming 'round, getting myself into position when I lost balance, slipping on a patch of slippery seaweed.

I knew I was going down, but I fought it, by stumbling forward and forward and forward... I corrected myself a millisecond before landing on all fours which just made me lose balance again, so I took a few more giant out-of-control steps sideways because of momentum before landing on my hands and knees in a soggy pile of ocean muck. I sacrificed my knees and my dignity in order to keep my camera safe.

I'm sorry to those of you on the beach, trying to watch the sunset. Sometimes those are Holy moments, yes? I ruined it with my floppin and flaggin around, making a huge spectacle of myself. "Look at me! Over here! I can't walk in a straight line! I'm going to stumble! Oh nope. I'm not. Haha. Just kidding, Yes I am! Here I go. Down. And down."

The guy on the beach? With the camera? "Hey? You OK?"

"Absolutely fine, thanks. I'm good. Camera's OK. Seaweed has not been harmed. All is well."

Nothing about this beach scene is Christmassy and yet.

...  let heaven and nature sing...

Joy to the earth, the savior reigns,
let men, their songs, employ
WHILE FIELDS AND FLOODS, ROCKS, HILLS AND PLAINS
repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy,
repeat the sounding joy.


Today's sunset?
Was repeating the sounding joy.
And I felt honored to be standing in the middle of that colourful joyous silent chorus.


Three things I'm thankful for:

1. Winter walks
2. December sunsets
3. Christmas carols


Shalom,
xo